Essence
by Ma'echii
Summary: Mulder, Nightmare. Nuff said.


Title: Essence

Author: Ma'echii'

Category: MSR Vignette AngstSpoilers: None

Summary: Mulder, Nightmare. Nuff said.

Notes: Just a little ditty written on the fly at Mulder's Refuge for Xtreme Unction Beta: None

Heat radiated from a darkened room, the combination of the summer weather and a broken AC, broached no relief from that heat, not even a breeze through the open window. A huddled form lay in one corner of a large bed. Another slouched in the chair beside it. A dim grey light came in from the window and stretched across the rumpled bedclothes, just touching the edges of the form with vestigial fingers, revealing only the back of a dark-haired head, the curved shape of a bared, long leg and the elegant curve of a large, narrow foot.

The gentle fluttering sound of a box fan came from one side of the room, but the contraption only served to shove around the hot, dank air.

The form abruptly thrashed in the tangled bedclothes, fighting dreams trapped by sleep, and turned to face the window. The dim light now revealed a decidedly male face, yet boyish in his slumber, despite the distress marring his unbalanced yet attractive features. He moaned and huddled in on himself, shivering. Cold sweat beading his brow, his moans and cries now increasing in clarity and volume.  
>"No! Please, no! No more! Please!" He writhed about, fighting off an ethereal entity with flailing arms and churning legs. He gasped, throwing his arms over his head and curling in on himself.<p>

A yelping shriek pierced the dank night air as he suddenly arched back, then immediately hunched forward again, snapping his legs protectively up to his chin, his arms still over his head. "Sculleeeee!"

The figure in the chair bolted upright at the cry, slightly dazed, shaking off the vestiges of sleep, yet immediately rose and sat on the bed with the man. Hands reached for him, fingers just barely brushing the thin shirt on his back before he arched away.

"No! Sculleee, help me, please!" Hot tears squeaked out from tightly closed lids and he whimpered, his voice a heart-rending, yet quiet cry of despair and desperation.  
>"Scully...why aren't you coming for me?...Don't leave me?" He rolled back over, still huddled in on himself, facing the figure from the chair, it's identity yet not revealed.<p>

Hands touched his face and he moaned and shied away, trying to escape, even in his restless slumber. "No! Sculleee!"

"Shhh, Mulder," came a soothing female alto, as she brushed her fingers through his hair and leaned forward. The reaching light now disclosed a pale roundish face, large, moist eyes and a flash of red at her brow. For all appearances she was young, but the expression in her eyes and her demeanor clearly spelled out otherwise. "It's ok. Wake up, Mulder. I'm here."

"Sculleee," he cried again, his whimpering becoming hitched, gulping breathes, his tears running sporadic trails down the sides of his face and into his hair,  
>dampening the pillow beneath his head.<p>

Scully crawled into the bed with him, tucking her legs underneath her and pressing herself into his side, as she pushed and turned him onto his back, forcing his arms and legs to unclamp. She took his face in both of her hands, her fingers threading in the hair at his temples. She leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the side of his mouth. "I'm here, Mulder. It's ok. It's just a dream now. Please wake up."

At her more intimate touch, Mulder gasped and arched off the bed, nearly bolting upright. His eyes popped open, wild and staring into the dimly lighted room.

"Scully?" he asked breathlessly.

"I'm here, Mulder," she murmured beside him, one arm now stretched across his torso, her palm spread over his T-shirt covered chest, her other arm now propping herself up to peer closely into his face. When he didn't respond, she addressed him again. "Mulder."

His head snapped over to face her, his eyes wide, his expression clearly seen in the light coming in from the window and now shining on his face. A gamut of emotions played across his features. Terror turning to trembling distress, total bemusement to disbelief, then to a slow dawning realization at where he was and who he was with.

"Scully?" He barely spoke her name, as if by it's very utterance she would disappear.

"Yes, Mulder, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. You were having a nightmare."

He gaped at her for some moments, then his breath hitched and he gulped, his face twisting with painful relief. He threw his arms around her, crushing her to him, sobs wracking his lean frame. "Oh, god, Scully!"

"It's ok. I'm here," she soothed, rubbing his back with both hands in gentling circles. "You're back home, in your own bed."

"Why did she do it?' he choked on a sob, gripping her with a fierceness that bordered on the painful. He gulped again and was sent into a spasm of coughing as he fought to hold back his cries.

Scully pressed her face into the hollow of his neck and murmured in his ear. "Mulder, it doesn't matter anymore. She's gone. She can't hurt you or anyone else ever again."

"What possessed her to commit such atrocities," he went on in a wail.

She shifted to kiss him behind his ear, one hand coming up into his hair. "Shhh, Mulder. Easy, settle. It's only a nightmare now. Shhh." She eased them back to stretch out on the bed, scooting them over to the unused side of the bed, pulling out the tangled coverlet from beneath their legs and draping it over them, sinking into the cool sheets.

They nestled further into each other as his crying slowly calmed into exhausted whimpers and sighs, then to the deepening inhale and exhale of a now sheltered, dreamless sleep.

She listened to him for some minutes as her eyelids drooped and gradually closed, then finally joining him, in his deepened slumber.

Then, at last, in the ethereal quiet, save for the fluttering white noise of the fan, a cooling breeze wafted through the window on velvet paws, gently kissing their partially covered forms and ruffling their sweat dampened hair. Both drew in a deep and slowly released breath and relaxed even further, as if, even in their sleep, they could feel the blessed relief of that calming zephyr.

End


End file.
